Submission window open for 15th Creditflux manager awards

By Robin Armitage & Lafri Reda

Tuesday, February 07, 2023

The 15^th annual Creditflux manager awards return this May, with submissions now open through to 21 February. After a month of rigorous analysis, the finalists will be announced at the start of April and winners will be presented at the Manager Awards dinner on 3 May, after the annual Credit Symposium at the Landmark Hotel in London.

The main CLO awards cover a variety of categories across the industry, recognising the best performers among US and European broadly-syndicated loan CLOs, middle-market and non-traditional CLOs, the best CLOs redeemed in 2022 and the best managers in all these fields, with categories for boutique and established firms included.

CLOs will be judged purely on performance metrics available in the trustee reports to ensure transparency. Metrics for best CLOs include par build and headroom in junior OC tests; weighted average price and percentage of assets marked under 80; weighted average spread, weighted average rating factor and assets marked as single B or triple C; and average annualised returns to equity weighted by leverage and volatility. CLOs that went effective in 2022 will be considered in the “new CLO” categories, and will be judged on weighted par build, warf at inception, and arbitrage.

In order to be eligible for the awards, managers must provide access to their trustee reports through the trustee websites to ensure the reports are listed on CLO-i and fill out this submission form. Managers should enter details for all their CLOs, and they will be automatically entered into all eligible categories. To be considered for the “best manager” categories, please note that all eligible CLOs must be submitted, as the finalists are selected on the average of all CLOs. For any questions or queries, or to return the submission form, please contact Lafri.reda@iongroup.com or robin.armitage@iongroup.com.

Fund awards

All open-ended CLO funds that are listed on Creditflux’s credit hedge fund database and have at least a year’s worth of returns will be automatically eligible for the best CLO fund category. Any fund interested in submitting to the database should send this submission form filled in with historical returns to robin.armitage@iongroup.com.

The closed-end CLO funds are split into two categories; please find attached submission forms with example data filled in for private closed-end CLO funds and public closed-end CLO funds. This is to recognise similarly structured funds with comparable reporting methods. Please return completed forms, or direct any questions or queries, to robin.armitage@iongroup.com.

Following the success of last year’s direct lending awards at the Debtwire Direct Lending Forum, the event has expanded to include an awards dinner later in May. More information will follow shortly, please keep an eye on the ION Communities page.

Please find the full list of categories below:

Award Categories:
Best new US CLO
Best new European CLO
Best US CLO
Best European CLO
Best US boutique CLO manager
Best European boutique CLO manager
Best redeemed US CLO
Best redeemed European CLO
Best middle-market CLO
Best new middle-market CLO
Best non-traditional CLO
Best public closed-end CLO fund
Best private closed-end CLO fund
Best CLO fund
Best MM CLO manager
Best US CLO manager
Best European CLO manager
Creditflux manager of the year